A rare cache of Reagan letters set for auction this month reveals a former president defensive of his wife Nancy’s inner-circle power, dismissive of ridicule that they used astrology to chart policy and coy about his emerging stand against the Soviet Union which would eventually help prompt the fall of the “evil empire.”

Typed on White House stationery, the letters to Reagan friend John Koehler, a longtime AP foreign correspondent and administration aide who died last year, reveal a president reluctant to show his hand on key issues and irritated at the constant criticism of his wife.